Raising Minimum Wage

Got a message about minimum wage that said – Bernie Sanders said “They’re just factually wrong. In my state of Vermont, our minimum wage is $8.60 compared to the national minimum wage of $7.25. We have one of the lowest unemployment rates in America. You have states where there is virtually no minimum wage at all, and their unemployment rate is much higher. The facts just don’t bear it out. The reality is that if we raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour about 30 million Americans would get a pay raise, and 88 percent of them are adults.”

First things first – never trust another word out of the mouth of Bernie Sanders. That guy has a very bad habit of not fact checking. Second – those statements were made back in December of 2013, and while I am pretty sure these numbers were never accurate, they surely are not by now. Third – based on his statement, I believe that random drug screenings should be mandatory for government workers from here on out. Finally, this is probably one of the weakest positions that I have heard yet in the minimum wage debate, not to mention factually inaccurate. Let us explore some of the REAL numbers in regard to his unfounded claim, and then explore the cause and effect of it.

75.9 million: The number of hourly-paid workers in the United States today. Or roughly 24% of the entire population.

47 million: The number of Americans who live on incomes below the federal poverty line. This equates to 14% of the population.

3.3 million: The number of Americans earning the minimum wage or below. That equates to 1% of the United States. And half of these earners are under 25 years old. Two-thirds of that are working part-time.

750,000: The number of minimum wage earners living below the federal poverty line. This is only 1.6% of those even in poverty and literally 0.24% of the entire country. – (Econ 21)

People at or below the federal minimum are: Disproportionately YOUNG: 50.4% are ages 16 to 24; 24% are teenagers (ages 16 to 19). Mostly (77%) white; nearly half are white women. Largely part-time workers (64% of the total). A lot of people were not ready for that statistic. (PEW)

As you can clearly see, Bernie is either living in “La-La Land” or cannot do math. Lumped together and rounding up, the group in question represents roughly 4% of the nation’s 75.9 million hourly-paid workers and 2.6% of all wage and salary workers. So basically the nation is trying to make a decision that will affect everyone over a very small percentage of people who are screaming REALLY loud about increasing the minimum wage. Leading the campaigns are unions, workers, and politicians and it is all attached to a moral position that states it should be possible to support a family on minimum wage. Does this sound crazy to anyone else but me?

First of all, it is very normal for earners under 25 years of age to have their earnings to be low. That is kind of the point actually. They earn lower wages because they are not skilled yet. Their wages increase as their skills and abilities and knowledge increase. What is NOT normal is for one person to work an ENTRY LEVEL job and expect to support their family, new car, new house, and so on and/or be paid a NON-ENTRY LEVEL wage. This is unreasonable for numerous reasons. Would it be nice to flip burgers to support a family? Of course it would, but it’s unreasonable to expect that. Raising the minimum wage to $30K a year then equates these minimum wages jobs with jobs like RN’s, Plumbers, Construction workers, truck drivers, crime scene cleaners, and so on. Personally, I believe that this is an insult to those hard workers. Would these skilled folks get a raise when the minimum is forced up? Probably not.

Think about this for a second: that self-check scanner at the super market that everyone hates… do you know how those got there? Forcing minimum wage to increase, forces employers to pay workers more as well as find alternate solutions to be able to afford the mandated raise. But the part that most people fail to realize is that if a businesses is going to be forced to provide a raise, they are going to want to hire higher-skill workers instead of no skill workers, and/or then turn to robots or self-order kiosks (as demonstrated) to replace the lower or no skilled areas. The evidence proves this. Why is this even still up for debate?

Of course, there really is no debate when you are talking facts. This is highly researched and not founded on moral blur. Here is an excerpt from a study that the CATO Institute did on the subject:

There is no good theoretical reason why a minimum wage, if it is binding on some employers, would have anything but a negative effect on employment. If the labor market is competitive (which it certainly is, especially at the bottom of the employment ladder), then any employer will let go—or not hire—an employee whose marginal productivity is lower than the minimum wage (plus payroll taxes and other employment costs) that the employer is obliged to pay.

A large number of empirical studies have confirmed that a minimum wage, if set above the equilibrium wage level, will destroy jobs. In their seminal 2008 book Minimum Wages, David Neumark and William Wascher present a review of empirical research on minimum wages in the United States. They conclude that there is plenty of evidence that “minimum wages reduce employment opportunities for less-skilled workers,” and they admit that their own research changed their prior views on the weight of evidence regarding the effects of minimum wages.

Economically speaking… raising the minimum wage (again) is just going to put more people out of work. I do not personally want to raise the minimum wage because I care about the many young mothers who this affects. They need the job. They need the money. I don’t want their jobs replaced by a robot and I sure don’t want to them to be reliant on government assistance. Understand that minimum wage was never meant to be a “living wage”. There is an education/skill gap as well as an actual value gap… and it’s just going to get worse because of this moral blur. Because of this push, robots are likely to take from 45% to 80% of all the current lower level jobs over the next few decades – studies support this. This is especially true in regard to jobs like store clerks and fast food. What are these low to no-skill workers going to do then?

Additionally, raising the minimum wage will only exacerbate the inflation and price hikes. This means that prices on the basics will increase, making it more difficult for those who were just pushed out of the job market and replaced by higher skilled workers or robot to purchase the things they need. When I hear people express their desire to raise the minimum wage, I am forced to ponder why they hate the lower class so much. Why would anyone wish such misery on another?

I might support it if our currency wasn’t fiat, perhaps, because remember: in 1913 you could buy a gun and a nice suit for an ounce of gold. Today, you can buy a gun and a suit for an ounce of gold. The same cannot be said in regard to using the dollar. Minimum wage is not the problem. It is actually really simple. If you really want to help the lower class out, stop trying to hurt those who employ them. Instead, make it easier for them to employ more.

You might also want to read this: FORBES: A $15 An Hour Minimum Wage Would Be a $17,500 A Year Tax On Jobs (CLICK HERE)29

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I went into this expecting it to just reaffirm my beliefs being familiar with this author. Well, it set me... Read More!

John Gandy

David M Robertson

5.0

2018-06-07T17:08:34+00:00

John Gandy

I went into this expecting it to just reaffirm my beliefs being familiar with this author. Well, it set me back a few times. And sent me off into research mode on my own. Actually took forever to read because I wanted to know more on so many chapters. Actually surprised me and made me question and even change some long held beliefs. There are no safe spaces here. Just a lot of well researched and well thought out info. I highly recommend this book for everyone that can have Their thoughts challenged without having a complete breakdown.

It's not what the doctors want you to hear but, if you suffer as I do from chronic conditions and... Read More!

Corey Nichols

David M Robertson

5.0

2018-12-16T17:56:39+00:00

Corey Nichols

It's not what the doctors want you to hear but, if you suffer as I do from chronic conditions and auto immune disease you will benefit highly from the knowledge David has presented here. I've already lost some weight and feel so much better!!!

Destroying the Narrative challenges the American reader to go against school-house and media-engrained narratives to explore other facts and facets... Read More!

MJ Brickey

David M Robertson

5.0

2018-06-07T16:53:27+00:00

MJ Brickey

Destroying the Narrative challenges the American reader to go against school-house and media-engrained narratives to explore other facts and facets of perception into our history and the current world we live in. Author David M. Robertson doesn't expect the reader to simply take his word for it but to consider his point of view, research the content, and then — with reason, logic and armed with information — come up with a viewpoint of their own. Robertson doesn't claim to have all the answers but knows where to look for them and — with this book — proves there is far more to our American story — our American illusion. He has a "think for yourself" theme throughout all his books, and that is something I can stand behind whether I always agree with him or not. I recommend this book to anyone who wants a break from "the norm" of being told what to believe and how to believe it.

Mr. Robertson presents a lot of information about a topic that is little known to the public. This book will... Read More!

Rachael Roberts

David M Robertson

5.0

2018-06-07T20:42:19+00:00

Rachael Roberts

Mr. Robertson presents a lot of information about a topic that is little known to the public. This book will propel you to rethink things that you thought you already knew and to question the validity of what you were taught.

This book was very enlightening! It is one that I find has infiltrated my every perception. I now find myself... Read More!

Rachel Couch

David M Robertson

5.0

2018-06-07T16:49:23+00:00

Rachel Couch

This book was very enlightening! It is one that I find has infiltrated my every perception. I now find myself questioning the origin of social propaganda and historic interpretation. I am now seeking out the truth for myself. On one hand, it has created waves in areas of my life that I once felt comfortable with and on the other I have found unity with people that I had given up on. The information has the ability to divide and refine like a fire leaving pure truth in its wake. It may be a hard pill to swallow for some, but it's definitely worth the challenge.